


Something Unexpected

by mcal



Series: Jamione Drabbles [1]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/M, Lonely Hearts, Pining, Quidditch, Ravenclaw Hermione Granger
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-05
Updated: 2019-08-05
Packaged: 2020-07-31 16:07:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,490
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20117830
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mcal/pseuds/mcal
Summary: An unbeta'd drabble for LadyKenz347. Completely AU, Hermione is a sixth year with the Marauders and is from this era. Read at your own risk.





	Something Unexpected

**Author's Note:**

  * For [LadyKenz347](https://archiveofourown.org/users/LadyKenz347/gifts).

* * *

James _should _have been filled with irrepressible pride and glee after Gryffindor’s victory over Hufflepuff. He _should _have felt more pride at how well everyone played, at how he and Sirius worked as a single unit and how they were unparalleled in their offensive strategy and execution this afternoon. He _should_ be excited that this could be another brick on the foundation for his case for being Gryffindor team captain next year for his seventh year, since Prefect would never be in the cards for him… And since Prefect was out, he could kiss any prospect of Head Boy out the window, too…

But James felt none of these things as he left the Gryffindor locker rooms alone, his Quidditch gear in a bag he carried low to the ground, and his broom slung over this shoulder.

She hadn’t come.

In truth, he hadn’t fully expected her to; Lily Evans hadn’t so much as given him more than the perfunctory necessary polite place here and there thus far this term. Even now, after she’d broken ties with Snivellous… 

He stifled a sigh, swallowing back the bitterness in its wake, forcing himself to focus wholly on his surroundings, finding things he loved. Things that made him happy—like Mum had taught him to do. ‘_Self-pity is a self-induced poison’_ she always said, and it never did anyone any favours. 

Things he loved, then: the grass was still a lovely, healthy green. The air carried that perfect chill, full of the promise of autumn and then Christmas hols. The sun was out and the sky was a perfect shade blue. The stands were now empty, and there was a calming presence about the pitch… Almost reverent, and—

“Hullo there…” he murmured to himself, finding a lone figure sitting in the back corner of the stands. Not alone after all. He dropped his bag and set himself up on the broom, deciding to tempt the fates with this unexpected surprise.

He couldn’t make her out fully from the distance between them still, but there was no mistaking Hermione Granger’s mane of curls anywhere. They tumbled around her shoulders as she sat alone in the stands, hunched over a tome that he could now see what much too large for her lap. He decided it must be a fair amount chillier for her, for he could tell her arms were wrapped around herself in a tight hold, and she’d worn house scarf today.

Blue and bronze favoured the witch, he mused… And he caught himself wondering if her curls had always been so long and silken…

“If you wanted to catch me alone, Granger, you could’ve just waited outside the locker room.” He flashed what he hoped was a roguish grin as the witch’s face jerked up, several curls catching in the wind, dancing around her face. He’d practiced this grin in the mirror before, and found it to be decently attractive, maybe even something muggle romance novels would call ‘dashing’ and ‘beguiling’… Granger’s flushed cheeks led him to believe he may just be right.

Her lips parted and her back straightened. “Believe it or not, I actually wasn’t waiting for you. I’d gotten caught up in this section on Egyptian runes after your last double play with Sirius, just before Matthews caught the snitch.” She shrugged her shoulders. “I heard Alice say something about the game being over, but my friends usually just let me be once I’m caught up in something.”

“Well, that’s disconcerting.” His brows pulled together, lips flattening in a thin, tight line. “No one at all bothers if you’re outside, lost to your world of theory and higher education, until you’ve caught a bad chill and it’s too dark to read properly.”

“I’d have come in before it got dark,” she countered, biting down on her lower lip when he arched an eyebrow at her. “…Eventually,” she admitted, a nervous chuckle to her voice. “What are you doing here, though? I’d have thought you’d already be off celebrating with your housemates back in the Gryffindor Tower.”

He found himself shaking his head, not entirely certain why he felt the need for transparency with this fellow sixth year he really wouldn’t call a friend on any regular day. 

But hang regularity… Regularity was the reason he still ached over Lily bloody Evans after all. 

“Celebration means hyper Sirius, and while Mum’s all but officially adopted him, there are times and places for his antics.” He raked a hand through his permanently unruly hair, opting for full disclosure now. “And, honestly, I’m not up for Lily’s disapproving glares to sour the mood.”

“That’s still a thing?” she asked, brown eyes wide.

Her words stung, more than they should have, he reckoned. This was one colossal joke to the entire school now, but he was all set to defend himself regardless, but beat him to it. 

“Wait, that’s not what I meant to say,” she rushed, snapping her book shut and hugging it to her chest. “At least, that’s not how I meant for it to come across.” Her shoulders drew upward in an inhale, only to sag a moment later in a heavy exhale. “I’ve really no reason to say anything, because no matter how high my marks are in class, or how kind, helpful or accommodating I am, Remus won’t ever give me a second look either.” James’ mouth fell open, and he would have commented, but Granger hurried on.

“It’s just that after that horrible affair at the end of term in June, I just thought… Well, after she rebuffed you the few times you publicly tried for anything earlier in the year, and how so clearly gone out of her way to ignore you thus far this year… Though, I really have no room to talk. The heart wants what the heart wants after all, and—” 

He didn’t mean to tune her out, he _really_ didn’t. But it seemed she rambled when she was nervous, and it reminded him a Sirius, only it seemed far more endearing now. And that blush still tinged her cheeks…He wondered what it would be like if _he _were the reason for it… And not some soul bearing discussion… 

“Hermione,” he cut-in, floating himself closer to the stands, closer to her proximity. “How’d you like for me to float you down? And perhaps we share a butterbeer at Hogsmeade tomorrow?”

She was frowning now, shoulders tensing. “I think not.” She stood, side stepping and hugging the book tighter to her chest. “You and I both know it’d be out of some repressed sense of loneliness or revenge, and I’m not about to stoop to such petty measures.

“I said nothing about any such thing,” he countered, flying towards her again. There was something in her frank honesty… Something in the way she could just be herself. She was this odd combination of Remus and Sirius, but it hadn’t been lost on him how her uniform softened and fit more to her curves this year… And he’d always appreciated her wild curls… He cleared his throat. “I’m simply suggesting that neither of us have to be alone on a weekend, this one or the next. And since we aren’t going to have the people we’d rather have, why not try to be a little less lonely together, and maybe find a reason so smile or laugh with each other?”

She lifted her chin, blinking at him. Blinking _several_ blinks before parting her lips. “Like actually enjoying each other for the sake of ourselves, and not our common misery?”

“Sure.” He shrugged, grinning again. “What have we got to lose? At worst, you’ll come to loathe and abominate me as much as Lily does, but at best, we’ll have found some pleasant company to waste some afternoons nattering on with…” And _now_ he permitted a smirk to curl wickedly across his face, eyebrows waggling. “Perhaps a snog session or two, if you’re up for it…”

Granger was definitely blushing now, and, oh, he hadn’t expected it to feel _that _good… But it did. His heart was purring and beaming, and he was suddenly very much hopeful that she agreed to this burst of inspiration.

“Well, when you put it like that…” She smiled back, stepping closer for him to assist her onto his broom.

He couldn’t explain why it felt so wonderful, so right, as she nestled her back into his chest, breathing out as his arm curled around her waist. He couldn’t explain why he felt the need to plant a chaste kiss to her cheek then lips before he picked up his almost forgotten Quidditch kit. He couldn’t explain the lightness in his chest as she confirmed their time to meet up for Hogsmeade tomorrow afternoon before leaving him for the library. 

But it was all there and true nevertheless. And James felt happier than he had in a very long time.


End file.
